The blurred lines between professional and personal writing

When work and life collide.

Image created via Midjourney

The other day, a writer asked on Threads, "Should I start a new blog to separate my personal writing from my professional content? Should I buy a new domain? WWYD?"

For years, I've drawn clear lines between different types of writing, publishing on several sites aimed at vastly different audiences. I felt like combining everything into a single publication wouldn't serve the reader. What if someone came across my blog about freelance writing and then found posts about grief and loss? Or came looking for a tip about Zapier automation, only to find some quips about parenting?

Every week, I publish one article on my Substack, one or two blog posts, and a newsletter or tutorial (they rotate bi-weekly). I write on my personal blog whenever the spirit moves me, which has been a lot more lately after I learned that I have a brain tumor.

The lines between professional and personal writing have become much more blurred over the past few weeks. Because all facets of life are intertwined. Because it's impossible to write on The Internet and not talk about the all-consuming presence of a brain tumor.

Still, the approach I take with each publication is different. Style, tone, how I want the reader to feel after they've finished reading. I think very few people are aware of all of my publications, because I work hard to keep them distinct.

And I've found, as I navigate these publications, that my writing is also deeply intertwined.

My personal blog

The first iteration of my personal blog started a mere three weeks after my oldest was born. I had an easy baby and was bored on maternity leave, so I started writing.

I'd always considered myself a writer. I used to fill journals in high school. I was an English major in college and wrote countless papers. But after graduation, I took a job at a tech company that required a lot of travel. I fell out of the writing habit (other than writing technical documentation for my employer).

Then, in September 2015, I had a stillborn baby: my third child, Nelle. I wrote through my grief. Five months later, the unthinkable happened: I lost another baby, Iris.

Almost all of my writing was centered around my grief. I realized that the focus of the blog had shifted. People would read my posts about pregnancy loss, but those were interspersed with the "what's going on in our lives" style of post that I'd been writing for years. Eventually, I split the blog into two. The writing about my daily life became private. My blog about grief is now Musings Out Loud.

After my rainbow baby (a baby after loss) was born in 2017, I continued writing regularly. Parenting a rainbow baby comes with its own set of emotions. Eventually, we settled into the routine of our lives, and I wrote less. The pandemic hit in 2020, and I wrote a bit more, but eventually that waned as well. I focused on writing for my other publications.

Now I have a brain tumor. And how am I processing my feelings? By writing.

Work. Better.

In October of 2021, I had a post go insanely viral on LinkedIn, racking up almost 4 million views. The post was about remote work. More than 1,800 comments later, I realized that people really wanted to talk about work. Back in 2021, the world was at the height of The Great Resignation. The pandemic had made people very tired and frustrated with work.

So I started a Substack, to articulate some of my thoughts about remote work. After all, I'd been working remotely since 2006 — far longer than many people. I started with the name Remote Musings, but eventually changed the name to Work. Better., so I could branch into topics unrelated to remote work. It started as a bi-weekly publication, but eventually it became weekly. I also launched a paid tier with additional content.

The world has changed a lot since I started this publication. I've changed a lot. A year later, in October of 2022, I lost my job. By that time, layoffs were rampant. Finding another job would have been hard, so I started freelancing instead.

In Work. Better. I'm very opinionated. I'm critical of systems, large corporations, and leaders who fail to lead. It's loosely career advice, but mostly pointing out all the ways that work sucks and the idealistic ways I wish work were better.

Work. Better. has rarely crossed over with Musings Out Loud, except for a few posts about grief and pregnancy loss.

My professional blog

Many years ago (maybe 2018?) I started writing on Medium. I know. I had Musings Out Loud and had taken my original blog private, but I still had things I wanted to say that didn't "fit" into a blog about grief and loss. I posted very rarely, sometimes about parenting or writing.

In 2021, I began to take Medium more seriously, especially when I quit my job as a tech executive and pivoted to a new career in content marketing and journalism. Medium is my largest platform for long-form writing — more popular than my Substack and my newsletter.

Once I began publishing consistently on Medium, I realized that I was giving up "ownership" of my content by publishing it only on Medium. It was still mine, but if something happened to Medium (or my account was compromised), I would lose a ton of work. So I went through a process to migrate the content to a blog attached to the domain I use professionally. Now, I publish to my blog first, and then cross-post it to Medium.

I write about topics like freelancing, running a solo business, and apps/tools. My Work. Better. audience might be interested in this content, if they're thinking about quitting their jobs, but not necessarily. The tone is straightforward and practical. I want the reader to learn something.

My newsletter

One day, I got a cold email from someone who found me through Medium. We ended up having a virtual chat and he was incredibly nice. He's what I would call a "super connector" — he loves connecting people, and introduced me to several other freelancers.

Months later, he reached out because he was co-launching a business to help people create a lead magnet and email funnel. I paid him to help me wtih this and that became an eBook: 17 Smart Tools Solopreneurs Need to Start, Grow, and Scale. I'd write a blog post and cross-post to Medium, with a call-to-action to download the eBook.

But what should I do with all these email signups, I wondered? I launched a newsletter called Tinkering With Ideas. Every other week, I shared a reflection, a product, and a tip. Short and sweet.

My newsletter has probably the widest range of readers. Many are fellow freelancers, but some come from my Substack or find me online. The tips I share are to make life easier, no matter if the person is self-employed, or working for a company, or just a busy person who wants some "life hacks."

Tutorials

I talk a lot about automation and the processes I use. I often get questions: "How do you set that up?"

So I launched yet another website, also called Tinkering With Ideas. On this site, I share step-by-step instructions with screenshots. If I write about a particular tool or process in my professional blog, I link to the corresponding tutorial. I also share links to the latest tutorials in my newsletter.

What happens next

My separate writing worlds have collided after I learned about Betty the Brain Tumor. I wrote about it separately on my personal blog, Work. Better., my professional blog, and my newsletter. I've continued to write additional posts, always keeping the specific audience and publication's purpose in mind.

I've spent time over the past few weeks pre-writing content for all of my publications, which is a monumental task considering the volume of content I write. Some people have been supporting me throughout this process (such as contributing guest content). I'll rely on dictation so I can keep publishing to Musings Out Loud during recovery, and a friend will help me edit/publish.

Long term, I don't know. If everything goes smoothly with brain surgery, I'll recover for six-ish weeks and then I'll be back. If everything doesn't go smoothly... I'm not sure. The surgery could impact the use of my arm, for example. If that happens, will it be permanent, or could physical therapy help me recover? There's no way of knowing.

I've tried to process what this will mean for my writing. My mind will still be intact. I could rely more on dictation. But I just don't know.

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I’ll be writing more about my Brain Tumor Journey in my personal blog. If you’d like to support my recovery, I have a GoFundMe or you can buy me a coffee.

You can also subscribe to support this publication as I continue to write during my Brain Tumor Recovery.